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Facial skin care: cleansing, nourishment, protection

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 08.07.2025
 
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An important point in the prevention and treatment of premature aging of the skin of the face and neck are external effects on the skin and proper care for it, which can be reduced to 4 basic rules:

  • The skin of the face needs to be cleansed (do not go to bed with makeup on your face).
  • Nourish (use masks, creams, etc.).
  • Protect from excessive exposure to external factors (sun, frost, wind, dust, etc.).
  • It is important to remember that all procedures (washing, wiping with lotions, applying masks or cream, removing and applying dry and oily powder, blush), in a word, all movements on the face and neck should correspond to the direction of the main massage (skin) lines - the lines of least skin stretching.
  • How and what to cleanse your face with

An essential condition for skin care is its cleansing. Going to bed with an uncleaned face, with cosmetics on the skin is not recommended. Before going to bed, the skin of the face is wiped with toilet water. Cucumber infusion is effective for wiping the skin, which cleanses, tones, refreshes and somewhat whitens the skin.

Preparation: grate 300 g of cucumbers, pour 250 g of vodka over them, leave for 2 weeks, then squeeze and strain. Before use, add equal amounts of glycerin and water to the cucumber infusion.

Instead of toilet water, it is also good, especially for dry skin, to wipe with fresh or canned birch sap or a decoction of birch buds (one tablespoon of birch buds per 200 g of boiling water) or an infusion of chamomile flowers (1 tablespoon of flowers per 200 g of boiling water). Chamomile infusion acts as an anti-inflammatory agent, relieves irritation, softens and disinfects the skin of the face, or with dill water.

To wash your face, use lotions: wipe your skin with a generous amount of juicy cotton wool using circular motions (gently, without stretching it). Your movements should correspond to the direction of the skin lines.

Recommended lotions that you can make yourself:

  • Lemon juice 50 g, 3 egg yolks, alcohol 90 and camphor 200 g each, water 100 g.
  • The same, but simplified. Lemon juice 25 g, 1 egg yolk, vodka 100 g, camphor alcohol 50 g.
  • Cream 100 g, 1 yolk, lemon juice 15 g, vodka 20 g, first grind the yolk, stirring, gradually add lemon juice, vodka, then cream.

A decoction or infusion of bean flowers is used as a cosmetic for washing and wiping the face. Two tablespoons of crushed flowers are poured with 0.5 liters of boiling water, infused for 20-30 minutes and filtered.

So, we have trained ourselves to cleanse our faces in the morning and evening, and learned how to make wonderful lotions at home... Now let's talk about how to nourish the skin of the face and neck.

  • Masks

Before applying the mask, remove any remaining powder, lipstick, dust from your face and wash your face thoroughly with warm water. Comb your hair back and separate it from your forehead with any cloth. Apply a small amount of nourishing cream around your eyes.

Masks are applied 2-4 times a week for 20 minutes, and then washed off with warm water using a cotton-gauze swab.

Dry, dehydrated skin with pigment spots can be wiped with corn or olive oil, then make a hot, wet soda compress - 1 teaspoon of baking soda per liter of hot water, and then apply a mask of white cabbage pulp or juice or pulp of watermelon, cucumbers, tomatoes, apricots, peaches or strawberries.

Sauerkraut is used for oily skin care. Crushed leaves are applied in a thin layer to the face, covered with a napkin and left for 20 minutes. Then the mask is removed, the face is washed with cold water, and a nourishing cream is applied to the face. If such masks are done once a week, the skin will become softer, fresher and acquire a beautiful color.

To prevent flabbiness of both dry and oily skin, vitamin, toning masks made from watermelon juice are recommended. 5-6 layers of gauze and a thin layer of cotton wool are moistened with juice and applied to the face and neck. Then rinse with water, wipe and lubricate with cream. Such a mask improves the skin color and refreshes it, makes it soft and smooth.

Melon pulp can be used to make nourishing face masks. Mash the pulp well and apply a thin layer to your face. With regular use of such masks, your skin becomes soft, elastic and pink. And thanks to the set of vitamins, eating melon contributes to the beauty of your body - it makes your skin smooth, adds shine to your hair and eyes, and freshness to your lips. Melon decoction is successfully used for pigmented spots, freckles, and acne.

Potatoes are widely used in cosmetics. A nourishing face mask is prepared from boiled potatoes mixed with milk and egg yolk. After such a mask, the skin will become elastic, smooth and tender, wrinkles will disappear. In case of inflammation of the eyelids or sunburn, it is good to use compresses from raw potatoes. They have an anti-inflammatory effect.

To treat reddened and flaky skin, apply freshly boiled potatoes with milk while hot; remove the compress when the potatoes have cooled.

A positive effect is also achieved by using a potato paste bath for 10-15 minutes (a tablespoon of starch is dissolved in 100 g of cold water, brought to a boil and diluted with one liter of warm water).

Potato mask. Boil one potato in a small amount of milk: when the liquid gruel cools down, apply it to your face. This mask quickly removes traces of fatigue on your face and smoothes out wrinkles.

Vitamin mask. Smoothes wrinkles and prevents their appearance, moderately moisturizes the skin of the face. Take a tablespoon of cottage cheese, add a few drops of lemon juice or a finely chopped orange slice.

Cucumber mask - cucumber juice refreshes, lightens pigment spots, helps to eliminate acne. Finely chop the cucumbers and add a few drops of lemon juice. Remove the mask with a towel without washing your face with water. You can apply thin slices of fresh cucumber to your face. Also, grate fresh cucumber and apply the pulp to dry or normal skin, lubricated with nourishing cream.

For oily skin, cucumber juice is mixed with an equal amount of vodka. Infused for 24 hours. Then the moistened gauze is applied to the face, leaving the eyes, mouth and nose open.

There is also such a recipe: beat the white of one egg and pour in 2 tablespoons of cucumber juice, mix well and apply to the face on gauze. This mask is especially recommended for aging skin with large pores.

Soak cucumber slices in fresh milk (not boiled) for 30 minutes, then wipe dry skin with them.

Flaxseed mask. It is used for nourishing masks. For this, 2 tablespoons of seeds are poured into 0.5 liters of water and boiled until the seed is boiled. The hot gruel (as hot as you can stand it) is applied to the face, then washed off with hot and rinsed with cold water. Such a mask helps smooth the skin, helps fight premature wrinkles, and protects the skin of the face from inflammation. For dilated blood vessels on the skin of the face, cool masks made from flax seeds are used, washing them off with cold water.

Carrot mask. Recommended for oily skin, acne, pale and aging skin with large pores. Grate a large carrot, if very juicy, add a little talc.

For dry and flabby skin, carrot juice is used both internally and externally for nourishing masks. When adding a few drops of lemon juice to carrot juice, it is used to whiten the skin against freckles. And when rubbing carrot juice mixed with lemon juice into the scalp, hair grows better and acquires a beautiful shine.

For flabby skin with pigment spots, use the following mixture: 1 table spoon of cream is ground with one fresh yolk and one teaspoon of carrot juice, applied to cleansed skin for 20 minutes. Then remove with warm vegetable oil and rinse with cold water. This mask rejuvenates, refreshes and gives the skin a beautiful shade.

Another recipe: mix two grated medium carrots with the beaten white of one egg, 1 teaspoon of olive oil or milk and a very small amount of starch. Apply the mixture to the face for 30 minutes and wash off with warm water.

Beetroot mask. Its juice is used as a mask to give natural freshness and revitalize the skin of the face.

Tomato masks. Tomato juice refreshes, regulates skin acidity and has a light whitening, biostimulating and soothing effect, and also prevents skin aging.

A mask with fresh tomato is recommended for oily skin with large pores. The face is covered with pulp or slices.

Cabbage masks. Its leaves are minced and mixed with whipped egg whites. Recommended for oily skin.

Two cabbage masks for dry skin. Boil chopped fresh cabbage leaves in milk until they become a paste, cool and apply to the face while still warm. Scald several cabbage leaves with boiling water to soften them, remove them from the water, grease with oil and cover the face and neck with them. It is advisable to wash with chamomile infusion. For oily and acne rashes, use a sauerkraut mask. Apply it to the face in a thick layer for 15 minutes, then wash off with sage infusion and lubricate with nourishing cream.

Onion mask. Onion - has keratolytic, phytoncidal and anti-sclerotic properties, which is widely used in cosmetics.

Mask. Grate fresh onions and mix the pulp in equal quantities with cream and whipped yolk - for dry and normal skin, and with whipped egg white for oily skin, apply to the face for 10-15 minutes. At the same time, apply a compress with chamomile infusion to the eyelids. Skin areas with freckles can be wiped with fresh onions.

Dill mask. An infusion of dill leaves in the form of a poultice is applied to inflamed and reddened from fatigue eyes. Before applying the masks, warm dill water is used to open the pores.

Parsley mask. Milk infusion of leaves for hygienic care of facial skin is used alone or in equal quantities with sorrel. Calculation: take one tablespoon of plants per glass of milk. When used, the skin becomes smooth, fresh, elastic and firm. Parsley juice for pigmentation is used as a whitening mask 2 times a day or applied in the form of poultices from boiled roots and leaves. Two tablespoons of pea flour are mixed in the same amount of whey and applied to the face. When the mixture dries, it is wiped off the face with circular finger movements, after which it is washed with hot water, and then cold. This mask cleanses the skin, smoothes it, makes it soft, elastic and velvety.

Apple and milk mask: 1 apple is boiled in milk, the warm pulp is applied to the face. It has a softening effect, nourishes the skin, rejuvenates. It is used for dry, normal and oily skin.

  • Compresses

Hot and cold compresses tone the skin of the face well. The hot one is on the skin for 2-3 minutes, the cold one for 1-2 seconds.

To tone the skin of the face and neck, instead of water, you can use a solution of sea salt (2 teaspoons per 1 liter of water), a cold tea solution (it protects the face well from sunburn), a solution of lemon juice (1 teaspoon per 1 liter of water).

To tone the skin of the face and neck, wipe with frozen juices of wild strawberries, watermelon, cucumber, parsley. To avoid scratching, the juices are frozen in PVC boxes with a round bottom (for example, from under tooth powder). Wiping with frozen juice of parsley, cucumber not only tones the skin, but also whitens, cleanses from pigment spots. Before wiping, the cleansed skin is lubricated with a nourishing cream. Juices on the face, as with masks, are left for 15-20 minutes, then washed off with cold water and lubricated with a nourishing cream in the form of an emulsion. Fruit-berry, vegetable, honey masks are widely used, which are applied for 15-20 minutes, then washed off with water.

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